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Keeping Track of your Credit Cards

Its Important to know when you open and close each card you apply for. The Annual Fee on most cards can be removed if you wait more than 12 months, but that requires a call to Customer Service. After 13, you might not get your annual fee back. If you cancel AFTER the fee hits, you might get a free Hotel Night or other benefit, OR a Retention Offer ($ or Points) IF you call Customer Service. Or you can get the free perk, ,then cancel the card online to get your fee back.

We use a simple Excel / Google Docs sheet that lists the following details:

Card Name

Date Opened

Minimum Spend Requirement

Min Spend Met Y/N

Active Dormant or Closed

Rewards Benefit (Hotel or Airline Points)

Close By / Closed on

With this system you can easily track when you will be eligible to ‘Churn’ the same card again, usually 1-2 years later… Or at the very least know when Annual Fees come due or when points may expire in the next year.

If you have say a SouthWest Card from Chase, that gave you 50,000 points, those points will be ‘sent’ to your SouthWest RapidRewards Account upon earning… They usually post within 30 days of meeting the minimum spend, and the ‘regular spend’ points will hit your account days after each billing statement.

Once they are there, you are free to cancel the Credit Card and will not ‘lose’ those points in the RR account. They do, however, expire after one year of inactivity… Each Hotel or Flight Program is different… on average a reward point will ‘live on’ for at least 12 more months, and that can usually be extended by some sort of addition or ‘use of points.’